'We No Speak Americano': Mighty handsome

By Sarah Kaufman

How do they keep a straight face? Or rather, two straight faces? Check out this excellent hand-dancing clip:

Love the music, love the table-tapping, love the rhythmic and visual variety--more than you could ever expect to drum out of four sets of fingers. This is a semi-forgotten art form, though a bit of it survives in the smart, sweet British sit-com "As Time Goes By" (which you can still catch on PBS, Saturday nights), in an early episode in which Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer freak out a bum on a park bench with a similarly deadpan hand dance, thus securing the seat all to themselves. Lovely stuff.